Interview: Fight The Tornado

May 26, 2020

1) What inspired the name Fight The Tornado?

It’s actually quite silly! At a festival (UK Tech-Metal Fest, 2018) there was a small dust tornado and I saw a guy run into it and start flailing his fists about! I was actually impressed and inspired and in a weird way it sort of reminded me about how I feel when I write music (like flailing about in a tornado.)

2) Is there a concept/ theme that runs through your upcoming EP ‘Maelstrom of Thought’?

Yes, the EP focuses heavily on the mind and how swiftly a train of thought can change, for better or for worse. The songs are about different states of the mind and they blend into one another a lot to reflect just how quickly emotions can shift.

3) What was the songwriting and production process like for this release?

Mostly wild, but that’s just how I operate! I didn’t just sit down and write most of the songs, the ideas came to me in their own time and there were a few times where I had to rush to the computer to write them down! As for production, it was a lot more organised than the writing process. When you’re producing most of it yourself, it’s almost therapeutic, just testing out ideas and seeing the whole thing come together. It’s a learning curve, but it’s rewarding.

4) Which artists, genres and/or experiences inspire your music?

I’m inspired by mostly progressive metal bands, though it depends on what sort of genre of music I’m into at the time. Devin Townsend is a huge influence on me at the moment, along with bands like Haken, Twelve Foot Ninja and Voyager. Lindzi is influenced by a lot of the female-fronted bands like Nightwish, Halestorm, Epica and In This Moment. Going to festivals and discovering new bands, whether they’re well-known or unsigned, always leaves the pair of us feeling motivated to make music.

5) Both yourself and Lindzi were members of the symphonic metal band, Curse of Dawn. How has your music evolved in this new project?

Curse of Dawn had a lot of different elements giving the music a progressive twist. Both Lindzi and I are a lot more into tech metal nowadays and I think that comes across in the guitar and drum patterns. Fight the Tornado contains a lot of the elements that were present in Curse of Dawn, but less emphasis on orchestral arrangements and more focus on guitar work.

6) Have current events had an impact on your music?

The whole EP was already written long before the whole Covid-19 situation, so that hasn’t really been affected at all. Since we haven’t had any gigs lined up, Fight the Tornado has been mostly unfazed by the events, but we feel for all the bands that are suffering because of the quarantine.

Their debut EP, ‘Maelstrom of Thought’, lands on Friday the 26th June 2020, with the single ‘Mercurial Inventions’ releasing this Friday!

Follow Fight The Tornado:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fightthetornado/